AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m here to help.What can I do?” I slipped behind the bar and patted a very stressed and slightly sweaty Gabriel on the arm. The soft open was going great. It seemed like all of Elmer had turned out.
“Get out of the way. It’s madness back here. Nothing is where we need it. And three people is two more butts behind a bar than I’m used to.” He shimmied between me and the cooler where we stored the white wine. He retrieved three bottles and pulled the corks while returning to where the white wine glasses were stacked and waiting.
One of the two bartenders we’d hired to help Gabriel grabbed my hip and moved me two feet to the left.
“I need to get in there,” he said, then jerked open a cabinet to get more of the promotional Blue Star stemless wine glasses that were a gift with purchase. The open door smacked the other temp bartender in the leg.
“Ouch. You’ve got to tell me when you’re doing that,” a twenty-something-year-old woman with a nose ring hissed.
“Are you sure I can’t help?” I watched Gabriel smush up against the bar so the other temp could deliver the promotional glasses to his customer. People three deep were waiting to taste wine. I’d love to help him, but he was right. The space behind the bar was tight.
“Right now, no.” He poured a glass and bent closer to a guest to explain about the unoaked chardonnay. The guest tasted it, and a big smile lit her face. She held up two fingers, buying bottles to take home.
“Y’all need to rethink your layout,” the girl with the nose ring told me. “I’ve tended bar for years; this is all wrong.” She filled three glasses with red wine.
Note to self, this woman might be our first hire. She knew the bar business, and watching her pour wine was like a ballet. She was flawless and even did the small twist at the end like waiters in high-end restaurants.
“I can try to set up another table for you or something?” I pointed to an open area to the left of the bar. “Would that help?”
“I don’t think so. We’ll power through and figure it out after the event.” She turned her back on me to deliver the red wines.
The three of them bobbed and weaved around each other to fill orders, deliver samples, and sell bottles. Okay, so this shit show was our biggest problem since Atley had saved my ass with the port-a-potties this morning. At least all the Elmer folks were patient about the wait, talking with each other and joking around. It was a soft open and they knew to expect a few bobbles.
In line to taste wine were Wanda and Melvin. He waved me over, and I was happy to not watch the indigestion-inducing problems behind the bar any longer.
“Nice boots, young lady.” Melvin pulled me in for a bear hug.
“I’ve been meaning to stop in and tell you how much I love them. Your pick was perfect.”
“I held on to those for a while. They needed the right lady, someone special.”
“I don’t know how special I am, but I love them.”
As I spoke to Melvin, Wanda gave me a quick hug and checked out my boots, nodding in approval.
“You’ve brought life back to the dancehall, and that’s pretty special in my book. My grandma used to go to dances in here, met my grandpa at one,” Melvin said.
“Really?”
“The dancehall was the hip place to be in Comal County two generations ago. No AC back then, of course.” He chuckled, and it made him look that much more like a suntanned, weather-beaten Santa Claus.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m adding it to the list of possible locations for our wedding reception once this guy gets around to a proposal.” Wanda looked up and down and all around again. “That chandelier makes it. You picked it out, right?”
“Yes, from the Arts and Oddities fest.”
“That’s what Atley said. He’s so proud of you. You know a man is serious when he brags about your accomplishments and buys you vintage calfskin boots with hand tooling instead of a bouquet of flowers.”
“I ah, um, well. I love these boots.” Stumbling over my words, I tried to absorb the news that Atley was bragging about me.
“Trust me, honey, the boots are huge. A man doesn’t drop thirteen hundred dollars on a fling. I know what I’m talking about.” Wanda lifted her tiered broomstick skirt to show offpurple snakeskin boots that exactly matched her rhinestone cat-eye glasses. “Melvin held on to these bad boys for an age waiting for me.”
I looked down at the boots I’d worn almost daily since Atley gave them to me. Thirteen hundred dollars was an astonishing amount. I turned back to Melvin and Wanda to explain we weren’t taking bookings for weddings yet, but they’d reached the front of the line and were speaking to Gabriel about the wines.
Wanda blew me a kiss as she lifted her first wine sample to her lips. I waved and smiled at her, noticing that she wasn’t wearing an engagement ring. Commenting about wedding planning and a forthcoming proposal was brave. I’d never have tried something like that with Matthew. Wanda seemed fearless. Maybe someday I’d grow up to be like her.
I scanned the room. The place hummed with people. We’d set up different areas in the dancehall: one for wine tasting centered around the bar, another area where the arts and crafts were displayed out on long tables, and then a section with round tables where people could eat and socialize inside in the AC. The lines at the food trucks had been steady, and the three trucks all seemed popular: Cuban, shawarma, and wood-fired pizzas.
“Congratulations. This is an accomplishment.” Amaryllis hugged me.
